Officials address public safety in Jefferson County

April 18, 2013

CHARLES TOWN - Sheriff Pete Dougherty traded in his typical blazer for a black sheriff's uniform Wednesday afternoon when he took a moment to address Monday's twin bombings at the Boston Marathon.

"Who would have thought my grandmother's favorite cooking utensil, a pressure cooker, would now be used as an instrument for terrorists?" Dougherty said with a sigh. "That's the world we live in."

Although the events at the Boston Marathon have gotten a lot of attention, Dougherty said looking back on any given week or month, it is difficult to not find a time period when similar incidents took place.

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What events, now tagged as terrorism, now do, Dougherty said, is provide an opportunity for the law enforcement personnel in Jefferson County to remind the community that if suspicious behavior is observed, to speak up and notify police.

"New York City has a phrase that they use - 'see something, say something' - and that's exactly what you need to do," Dougherty said.

Overall, Dougherty said he did not feel Monday's events would cause a major change in the county's law enforcement.

He said the problem that faces law enforcement and emergency personnel is they must constantly stay up to date with technology, the use of all the varying elements that can cause terrorism and destruction and how to respond to those categories - he used Tuesday's ricin attacks as an example.

Barbara Miller, director of Jefferson County Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said a large part of being prepared for disasters, or even terrorism, involves conducting and participating in exercises that allow those individuals who would respond in an emergency to work together and get to know one another before the time arises.

"Regardless if it's something that happened during the last week or anything, that's why we do what we do every day here," Miller said Wednesday. "If we are missing one link in our chain, we've got a problem."

She said that, for example, those trained responders were worried about a secondary device exploding during the marathon Monday, because as a trained responder you are waiting for "the other shoe to fall," Miller said, adding secondary devices are used because bombers know that once the first one goes off, people will run away into a certain area, leaving an opportunity for the second device to cause maximum damage.

As far as what was going on in West Virginia Monday, that was being closely monitored by the West Virginia Intelligence Fusion Center, Miller said. State, local, federal, private - all forms of public safety and law enforcement officers partner with the center in Charleston to provide intelligence and information.

"It has people there from the FBI (and) the CDC," Miller said. "Each of those is watching law enforcement's sensitive information and the things that are coming in and sending that to directors of homeland security across the state."

Miller said in calm times the center provides her with updates on things to keep a lookout for or information on what is happening in other places.

"When there's something on going like (Monday) we are watching to see if it's an isolated incident that is going to remain in Boston, or if it's something of a nature that is going to spread to other areas," Miller said.